Northern values stand firm

This story is best read while listening to a soulful cornet solo and drinking Tetley's bitter in the rain. It is a reminder that northern values such as honour and responsibility remain strong at a time of millennial doubt.

The Black Dyke Band, the Vienna Philharmonic of British brass ensembles, has turned down the glitz and fizz of the Oscar ceremonies next week to honour a prearranged engagement in Bournemouth. Nice as the pearl of the Dorset coast may be, the missed transatlantic trip has prompted pangs of regret among Black Dyke's 28 virtuosi.

"I feel disappointed that we are not going, to be honest," said cornet player Matthew Baker as the band headed south in the rain yesterday from its base in the West Yorkshire village of Queensbury for a concert at Warwick University. "I'd love to be going to the Oscars. But the fact that we have a concert booked and that all the tickets have been sold means we have to stick by what we originally planned to do."

Eight members of the band, founded in 1855 and garlanded with success ever since, accompanied Peter Gabriel in a song on the soundtrack for the film Babe: Pig in the City , which has been nominated for an Oscar.

"The ceremony's producer came on and said they wanted the whole band over there," said Geoffrey Whiteley, Black Dyke's administrator. "We thought about it long and hard. But we had committed ourselves to the concert in Bournemouth, which has already sold 1,700 tickets and which should raise £10,000 for a local heart charity. On the following day, we are doing a master class for youngsters and mature players in the area. It was all booked a long time ago, so the only thing we could do was turn down the Oscar invitation." He added: "The producer pointed out that more than a billion people were likely to see the Oscars ceremony on TV and he thought we would have gone for the greater audience. But our motto says: 'Act justly and fear nothing.' We would dearly love to have gone. But we felt the moral thing to do was to honour the engagement." The decision was greeted with incredulity by media moguls unable to understand how anyone could turn down the Californian west coast for the English south coast. But Bournemouth is delighted. "It just shows how professional they are," said Tony Hardman, manager of the Winter Gardens.

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